Still feeling responsible for Don's near-fatal stabbing, Charlie puts his focus into tracking down an unnoticed serial killer, with the agents revisiting math theories from when Charlie first started working with the team to help solve the case.

Chuck Barney

This is by no means a lousy show. The performances are solid and the brothers-working-together dynamic is intriguing. But the pilot lacked dramatic oomph, and it did a poor job of actually taking viewers inside the math and explaining how it works. Consequently, "Numb3rs" just doesn't add up. [22 Jan 2005]

Michael Abernethy

Rob Owen

It's not a bad show, merely ho-hum. Perhaps it will have greater appeal to people who liked math in school, but to me "NUMB3RS" just seems like a "CSI" clone with the quadratic formula tossed in for good effect. [23 Jan 2005]

Alan Sepinwall

If you've somehow never seen any of the twelve dozen procedural crime shows that CBS does, it might feel a little new, but too often the scenes with Don and his colleagues feel obligatory, like everyone is doing their best to keep the plot moving until Charlie bursts in with the correct digits. [21 Jan 2005]

Mike McDaniel

Sarah Rodman

The glimmers of truthfulness in the family nucleus offset the chilly crime elements. ... The office environment is less compelling as the coterie of feds... perform their unpleasant tasks with little personality. [23 Jan 2005]

Phil Rosenthal

Gillian Flynn

Math might not seem the sexiest way to enliven a story. But that's the sneaky smarts of this show, executive-produced by film directors Ridley Scott (Gladiator) and Tony Scott (Man on Fire), who know how to dust off old genres.

Brian Lowry

The major stumbling block remains that it's odd to contemplate seeking algorithmic solutions to crimes or having a guy who got beat up a lot in high school answering 911 calls. So even with Charlie functioning as a kind of adjunct to the bureau, it's muddled how they'll consistently capitalize on his abilities. [17 Jan 2005]

Linda Stasi

Robert Bianco

Yes, in essence, Numb3rs is just CSI with mathematics standing in for forensics. But that cleverly used math twist, combined with an excellent cast and a very un-CSI interest in the characters' family dynamics, provides enough separation to make Numb3rs worth watching on its own.

Robert Lloyd

It is astonishing to me that a television show that stars Rob Morrow, Sabrina Lloyd, David Krumholtz and Judd Hirsch, four of the most interesting and attractive and amusing actors television has ever beamed into a living room, would turn out to be a show that -- on the basis of its pilot, at least -- I would not ever care to watch again.